Life of Tolstoy Author:Aylmer Maude Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II CHILDHOOD AND EARLY MANHOOD Yasnaya Polyana. Aunt Tatiana. The German Tutor. The brothers: Nicholas, Sergius and Demetrius. Doun- etchka. The ho... more »use-serfs. A family scene. Pilgrims and saints. Death of father and grandmother. Flying. Per- sonal appearance. Corporal punishment. Originality. Rid- ing lessons. The Countess Osten-Saken. Aunt P. I. IJshkof. Books. Abstract speculations. Kazan University. Imprisonment. Diary. Demetrius. Books: Dickens and Rousseau. Yasnaya again. Petersburg. Consistency. Rudolph the Musician. Women. Gambling. Gipsy girls. Money difficulties. The liberty of Russian nobles. Yxsnaya Polyana (Bright Glade), where Tolstoy was born, had been an ancestral estate of the Volkdnskys and belonged to his mother, the Princess Marie. It is situated ten miles south of Toula, in a pleasantly undulating country. The estate, which is enclosed by an old brick wall, is well wooded and has many avenues of lime-trees, a river and four lakes. In Tolstoy's grandfather's time, sentinels kept guard at the small, round, brick towers, which now stand neglected at the entrance of the main birch avenue leading to the house. Something of the great confidence in himself and readiness to despise others, which despite all his efforts to be humble, characterise Tolstoy, may be due to the fact that he was born and grew up on an estate where for generations his ancestors had been the only people of importance. ' Aunty' Tatirina Alexandrovna Ergolsky had been brought up by his grandmother on an equality with her own children. She (Tatiana) was resolute, self-sacrificing, and, says Tolstoy, most have been very attractive with her enormous plait of crisp, black, curly hair, her jet-black eyes, and vivacious, energetic expression. When I remember her she was more than...« less